Corea, Hiromi, Kikuchi and the piano.

Duet : Chick and Hiromi

Stretch (2008)

Black Orpheus: Masabumi Kikuchi

ECM 2459 (2016)

If you like piano jazz it would seem entirely plausible that two fine pianists playing as a duet would offer greater thrills than either one alone.  If one of those pianists is Chick Corea, chances are you would sit back and prepare to hear quality that 50 years experience confers.  Well, wouldn’t you?  The inventiveness, dexterity and joyfulness that comes across in Chick Corea’s playing is undeniable but you sense this review is not going to be one of all round approval.

Hands up those of you who found the duets with Herbie Hancock (released in 1978 as An Evening With Herbie Hancock & Chick Corea: In Concert , Columbia) far from satisfying. Similarly, the combined talents of Cecil Taylor with Mary Lou Williams failed to translate into something of greatness.  With both hands on the keyboard it quickly becomes clear that too many notes can suffocate. Furthermore, when the pianist has the capability of dizzyingly fast runs across the keys there is both density and speed which easily becomes overwhelming.   

So, I approached the duets of Chick Corea and Hiromi Uehara with some reservation. Sadly, all my fears were realised in this double CD, recorded in Japan in 2007.   Far from exhilarating I found it tiring such that by the third track of CD1 I was reaching for the eject button on the remote.  Doubtless, the pair generate electricity and spur one another on in ever increasing displays of prowess but this listener soon failed to care what was going on.  The songs under examination were a good mix of show tune standards (Summertime), jazz standards (Bill Evan’s Very Early) or standards by Corea (Windows) or tunes by Hiromi but technical wizardry killed remove any sense of space or delicacy in too many of the tunes.

Whilst Hiromi is one of Japan’s favoured pianists of the decade, it far less clear to me what place Masabumi Kikuchi has in the nation’s hearts and minds. Kikuchi died in 2016 after man years away from any spotlight, quietly chiselling away at his music in New York.  Kikuchi had been a star back in the 70s as a progressive player of electric keyboards.  His later work with Gary Peacock and the late Paul Motion (recording under the moniker Tethered Moon) are glorious examples of how he was moving towards playing fewer notes and leaving greater emphasis for the gaps, the haunting decay of the chord. 

Kikuchi’s last release came out in 2016 just after he had died.  It is a recording of a solo concert in Japan at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Recital Hall from October 2012 and it shows a man far less assured than Corea or Uehara.  The improvisations are mostly slow to medium paced and the poignancy of the pauses draw you in as you anticipate what notes will played next. The hesitancy, far from suggesting that Kikuchi lacks the chops, reflects the quest Kikuchi was taking on in order to create his own true sound. A video entitled Out of Bounds can be recommended as a documentation of this late phase (as it turned out to be) in Kikuchi’s search for his musical self. The film (by Thomas Haley) portrays a musician refusing to be content with technique but digging for a style of playing that feels weighed down with reflection and not a little sadness.

The contrast in the approach to jazz piano between Corea (and Hiromi) and Kikuchi will suit differing tastes. Not that Corea avoids delicacy or bittersweet in his ballad playing, indeed  I am often drawn back to his tremendous interpretation of But Beautiful (Solo Piano: Standards , part 2. Stretch), but where Corea has retained an interest in technically adept methods as part of his palate, Masabumi Kikuchi chose the opposite direction, paring down the number of notes and looking for a more reflective sound.

Maybe if was a teenager all would be different.  The enthusiasm of Corea and Hiromi must be inexhaustible but for this old wheezy bronchitic, I need time to sit down and collect my breath.